For years, it was just a box. Now, it may be a rare Wright factory relic

OAKLAND — At first glance, the wooden box was unremarkable.

It was full of paint cans when he saw it at a Midland Park estate sale, but what caught Oakland resident Joe Porus' eye was the writing on the side: Wright Aeronautical Corp., Paterson, NJ, USA.

“I had just gotten my pilot license at the time, so anything about the Wright brothers was interesting to me,” said Porus. “The woman at the estate sale said her late husband had brought the box home from his job at Curtiss-Wright in Paterson.”

Wright Aeronautical was the name given to the plane company owned by Wilbur and Orville Wright — the brothers credited with the first sustained aircraft flight off Kitty Hawk, N.C. — after it was sold and moved to New Jersey in 1917. Curtiss-Wright was the plane company formed when Wright Aeronautical was bought by a competitor in 1929.

After buying the box for $5, Porus didn't think much more about it. For 28 years, he said, it sat in his study holding his flight manuals.

But then in May, he was surprised to find a similar box next to a model of the Wright Brothers' first airplane during a visit to the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park in Ohio.

“The box was described as a tool box owned by Wilbur Wright,” said Porus.

Porus was even more surprised when he described his box with printing on the side to a museum employee.

“He said to me very slowly, three times, ‘It's priceless,’ ” said Porus.

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When he came home, Porus started making inquiries.

“It was like drinking out of a fire hose at first,” Porus said of the reaction from various experts. “Everyone was calling me back right away.”

The Smithsonian Institution's National Air & Space Museum in Washington and the Paterson Museum both reviewed photos of the box, and have tentatively confirmed that it was used by the company to ship tool parts. It is possibly the sole survivor from the factory.

While the museum representatives caution they would have to see the box firsthand to officially confirm its authenticity, neither expressed any doubt of its value.

“We have no photos of that particular box, but we have photos of other boxes used for parts and it is similar,” said Jeremy Kinney, curator of aviation for the Air & Space Museum. “The typeface of the print is true to the period. It’s amazing that something like that survived. Things like that were usually fuel fodder and ended up in the furnace.”

Giacomo “Jack” Destefano, director of the Paterson Museum, further confirmed the box as coming from the Wright factory, which manufactured the engine in the Spirit of St. Louis plane flown by Charles Lindbergh in 1927.

“These crates were used to ship parts back and forth to Europe," Destefano said. “Anything from that period is very sought after.”

Several museums as well as New York City auction houses have expressed interest in the artifact, according to Porus. However, the museums have advised Porus to get the box independently appraised and insured first. Porus says he is debating what to do with his find: keep it, lend it, sell it or donate it.

“I still don’t know what I’m going to do,” said Porus. “I think I want to show it for a while. And who knows? It could be my ticket to Bora Bora.”

Email: stoltz@northjersey.com